Super Heroes

In case you've been under a rock for the past ten years (and especially the last five), super heroes are HUGE. This brings me to a question: Where did Batman come from? Can I get an answer from the readers? Where did Spider-man first appear and in what format? Superman?

It's time for us to give credit where credit is due. This is a blog about setting the record straight, guys.

I'm in my mid-twenties, and feel I'm the last of the last generation to indulge in comic books to a degree that is even traceable on a graph chart. Even if wwe do, we are almost so embarassed to be associated with them. This gives rise to a broader use of the term "graphic novels" as we insist on calling them. We use this term both to sound more intellectual and because we're embarassed we still read, much less know about comics. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

To be sure, there was a second comics "boom" extending roughly from 1990 until 1995 or 1996. We loved them again, and the industry was once again flush with much-needed attention from the youths it has historically pandered to.

Looking back, I am proud to have been a part of it, but I am also saddened to see that I am the last of a dying breed of generations not only to have ever read one, but to even know what they are, much less their importance as the origin of countless larger-than-life heroes, meglomaniacal villains, and (now) blockbuster summer movies.

Let's set another record straight: I don't do super hero movies . . . especially the "Spider-man" variety. Hate the cheesy costumes; hate the acting; hate seeing hack-job bands like "Linkin' Park" featured on the soundtrack, doing a hack job to a hack film that is hacking away part of my childhood. Batman movies have been good (save those awful Joel Schumacherized ones in the mid-nineties . . .thanks for almost destroying a legend for us there, Joel). Other than Batman, that's about it for me. I prefer the rest of these legends in print format, thank you.

That being said, I have the sinking feeling that if you were to ask many ten year-olds these days where Spider-man came from, they either wouldn't know, or would say "the movies." This is too bad. The comics industry is increasinlgy being kept afloat by lending out or self-producing movies in Hollywood. Initially, this was great. I was finally seeing some legitimate recognition given to some of my faviorite fictional characters, and Hollywood even transformed some of the underrated B-list hcaracters into A-listers (we'll be seeing much more of this as the well of A-list super heroes and teams runs dry and a Hollywood increasingly devoid of original ideas becomes even more desperate to find new lucrative properties).

There was a real time back in the 1940s in which Captain America's "Sentinels of Liberty" had a venerable membership of American girls and (mostly) boys all across the united States and even beyond. This was a club youths could join both to indoctrinate them into a nationalistic frenzy against "our enemies to the East" under a thins veil of crushing "spies," and to increase readership. There was a time around the same era in which Captain America OUTSOLD Time magazine! If you don't believe me, look it up.

Soon though, the industry fell into dark times. Books still sold, if not as much. They declined for a great number of reasons. The war ended, a man by the name of Frederick Wertham wrote a book called "Seduction of the Innocent" in which he crushed the careers of cartoonists and writers all over the country (and alomst the whole industry) by asserting that comics were corrupting our children, and interests in superheroes waned. Comics went through a decade in which new ideas were desperately needed and formats changed from super powers to crime, romance, western, and horror. This was prior to the "Silver Age" and the rise of the likes of the Fantastic Four and the X-men.

The industry barely survived this dark age, although some great properties, such as Tales from the Crypt, True Crime, and Mad Magazine were established and popularized.

In came the new guard, starting around 1961 with the publishing the the first ever Fantastic Four comic by Marvel Comics, progenitors of such classics as The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, and Avengers, and the X-Men, among countless others. I think it very sad to see that the comic books no longer serve the films, books, and cartoons. Now it is the other way around. Who knows? The movies and toys licensed thereof may be keeping the books (barely) in print now, but in ten years, who's to say there will be any comic books left? Who's to say the now-preferred graphic novels will even be published anymore? Will these amazing and unrivaled mediums of unique in storytelling be left as a forgotten footnote in history? Will the kids (and grown ups) even know the names of the creative masterminds who invented these stories, characters, and sometimes VIRTUOSO artwork by the likes of Jack Cole, Harvey Kurtzman, Jim Lee, Jack Kirby, and the hand painted panels of my personal favorite, Bill Sienkiewicz. His panels are individually painted, and, at times, it almost feels as though each one should be hanging up in the Louvre. Awesome abstract work, Bill.

These guys are TRULY unsung, although I hear the venerable Frank Miller might need to rethink bringing his great talents to Hollywood, based on the word regarding his recent effort "The Spirit."

These books come in an unimaginably wide variety, too. They aren't just the realm of crime and super heroes, guys. Art Spiegleman's Holocaust account, "Maus" has won the Pulitzer prize, Frank Miller's graphic novel "Sin City" is widely regarded as a masterpiece of hard-bitten crime fiction and abract artwork. Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" is revered as abstract expressionist storytelling of a dreamy quality more befitting of Salvadore Dali than Stan Lee. "Walking Dead" has attracted of devout legion of fans of all ages and walks of life. The highly acclaimed "Ghost World" has been adapted into a multi award-winning film on the highly artistic independent film scene. Watchmen has been called the "graphic novel of the century." "Batman: The Killing Joke," "Arkham Asylum," and "The Dark Knight Returns" have all been praised for amazingly technical, abstract (almost cubist), and highly emotive artwork, respectively.

Let's not forget the creative minds behind these works. Writer/conceptualist Stan Lee has almost single-handedly created the entire and highly profitable Marvel Universe (his creations include the X-men, Hulk, Iron Man, Spiderman, Fantastic Four, among COUNTLESS others), interweaving all the stories told on a monthly basis into one, nearly cohesive universe (sometimes called Earth-616, or the Marvel Universe). He, teamed with deeply-missed profilic artist Jack Kirby have often been called the Lennon-McCartney of the comics world, a dream team Hollywood owes a DEEP debt of gratitude to.

Robert Crumb is . . . . well read about him yourself. I could go off on a rail about his contributions to underground art, but suffice to say he is an important figure.

My point remains that I hate to see this medium vanish, and that I hope that kids will continue to read these comics, even if they go out of print, long into the future and beyond. These films do not begin and end at the big-screen and a quick purchase of licensed action figures at Toys 'r' Us on the way home to keep the kids quiet. Let's give reverence where reverence is due. I have to give thanks to the minds behind these mythical, iconic characters. Thanks for helping to weave the fabric of the dreams of this wide-eyed youth.

And for the record, Spider-man first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1961, Batman first appeared in the oft-reprinted Detective Comics #27 in 1939, and Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1 in 1938. I can;'t forget these comics. I was too awe-inspired as a ten year-old to have forgotten those dates in my early adulthood. And no, I didn't need to look those up on wikipedia before I wrote them.